Canning is an excellent way to preserve food for long-term storage, and most preppers have at least some experience with canning.
If you’re a newbie, you may be wondering about water-bath versus pressure canning. And if you’re a long-time canning pro, you probably love to debate and discuss information about both of these canning methods.
What Is the Difference Between Water-Bath and Pressure Canning?
Canning is an umbrella term that is used when talking about both hot water bath canning and pressure canning.
Water bath and pressure canning are different methods used to preserve food in jars, but they aren’t used for the same types of foods.
Here are some of the most significant differences between water bath and pressure canning:
- Water bath canning is used for processing high-acid foods in boiling water, and pressure canning is used for processing low-acid foods under pressure.
- Water bath canning doesn’t require a sealed canner. All you need is a large container with a regular lid.
- Water bath canning uses more water but doesn’t take as long.
- Pressure canning reaches higher temperatures, up to 240°F (116°C), while water bath canning only gets up to 212°F (100°C).
Another major difference between water bath and pressure canning is that hot water bath canning is easier, so a lot of beginners are more comfortable with it.
On the other hand, pressure canning scares some folks because of the high-pressure equipment and the added steps, making them hesitant to give it a try.
If you’ve heard horror stories about the risks of canning, such as botulism or exploding canners, set your mind at ease.
Modern canning equipment is a lot easier to work with than it used to be, and if you follow safety precautions and instructions, the dangers of canning are easily avoidable.
The Science Behind Canning
How does canning food at home work?
Unlike some other popular food preservation methods, such as drying, freezing, and fermenting, canning isn’t a natural process. It’s more of an industrial one.
Canning creates an anaerobic environment inside a sealed jar by removing oxygen, thereby increasing the shelf life of its contents. Canned food lasts longer and isn’t affected by the growth of aerobic bacteria, yeast, and mold, which can’t survive without oxygen.
The Risk of Botulism in Canned Food
The biggest risk you take with canned food is botulism, which is caused by Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic bacteria that occurs naturally in low-oxygen environments. Clostridium botulinum can be found in many places, including dirt, low-acid foods, and raw honey.
While rare, botulism is deadly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 210 cases of food-borne botulism reported in the US during the 18-year period between 1996 and 2014.
Of these cases, about one-third came from home canned foods.
Botulism is much more common in low-acid, pressure-canned foods because the bacteria don’t grow in high-acid environments.
That’s why it’s safe to eat water-bath processed foods like jams, pickles, and relishes without cooking them, but you must heat canned foods to 185°F (85°C) for at least five minutes before consuming them.
Water-Bath Canning
Water bath canning is surprisingly easy. It’s a lower temperature method of canning for high acid foods.
Foods You Can Safely Process With the Water-Bath Method
Not everything can be processed with water-bath canning, but there are several types of food that are recommended for this method:
- Fruits
- Fruit juices
- Jams, jellies, and chutneys
- Salsas and tomatoes
- Pickles and relishes
- Pie fillings
- Vinegars
Equipment You Need for Water-Bath Canning
If you’re new to canning, the water-bath method is a great place to start because it’s easier, doesn’t take as long, and the equipment isn’t as expensive.
Related: 15 Cheap Survival Items You Should Stockpile
Here’s the equipment you need for water bath canning:
Canning jars, lids, and rings- Large stockpot or water bath canner
- Jar rack
- Jar lifter
- Wide mouth funnel
- Bubble tool
- Kitchen timer
Canning jars, lids, and ringsIf you’re brand new to canning, you can purchase a set of canning tools that will have most of the stuff you need. You’ll also need plenty of other basic kitchen equipment, depending on what you’re canning, including cooking pots, bowls, knives, and strainers.
Pressure Canning
While pressure canning is a little more complicated, it’s very straightforward. With the right equipment and instructions, anyone can do it! Once you’re set up for water bath canning, then all you need to do is add a pressure canner to your home canning station.
Foods You Can Safely Process With the Pressure Canning Method
Foods that are low-acid must be processed in a pressure canner. The time and temperature in the canner will ensure a proper vacuum seal to prevent food spoilage of the following items:
- Meats, including fish, seafood, and poultry
- Low-acid salsa recipes
- Vegetables
- Soups, stews, and chili
Foods That Can’t Be Canned
Not all foods can be processed with home canning. Dairy products and eggs, including creamy soups are not safe to can.
Even though canning is perfect for most vegetables, there are some that aren’t suitable for either water bath or pressure canning, including broccoli and mashed potatoes.
10 Things to Avoid When Processing Home-Canned Foods
Whether you’re using the hot water bath method or pressure canning, here are the top ten mistakes to avoid when canning food.
1. Not Getting Your Gauges Tested Annually
Without an accurate gauge, it’s not guaranteed you’re processing your foods at the right pressure, which can lead to botulism poisoning.
2. Changing Recipes
Canning is a science, and the recipes you’ll find through your local extension office or USDA website have been scientifically tested.
3. Adding Thickeners
It’s best to avoid thickeners like corn starch and flour, which heat at different temperatures than other types of food. The only USDA-recommended thickener is Clearjel, which can be used for canning pie fillings and stews.
4. Using Unapproved Methods
Unapproved methods like oven canning, dishwasher canning, and open kettle canning don’t reach the required pressure or heat the food sufficiently to kill bacteria. Neither do Insta-Pots and other pressure cookers.
5. Failure to Adjust for Altitude
If you’ve ever lived at a high altitude, you’re familiar with how it affects boiling water. The same goes for canning, and you have to make adjustments when you’re canning at altitudes over 1,000 feet.
6. Venting Your Canner
When you start your canner, you need to leave the vent pipe open so that once it starts venting, it will allow steam to escape for 10 minutes.
7. Leaving Rings on Jars
If you ever have an improperly sealed jar, you may not even notice if you’re leaving the rings on during storage. Fluctuating temperatures in your canned food storage area can cause improperly sealed lids to unseal and reseal. If there isn’t a ring on the lid, it will move, and it will be much easier to spot an improperly sealed lid.
8. Stacking Jars in the Pantry
For the same reason you don’t want to leave rings on your jars, you shouldn’t stack jars in the pantry. If you do, be sure to put a piece of cardboard between the layers, which will spread the pressure across the rims of the jars.
9. Immediately Removing Jars From the Canner
You risk broken jars if you immediately remove jars from the canner once the processing time is completed. Give the canner a chance to cool off for about 5 minutes before taking the jars out.
10. Hot Pack Versus Cool Pack Mistakes
Some recipes call for a hot pack method, which means the food going in the jars has to be hot. If you allow it to cool, you won’t get the right temperature in your jars, which can lead to improper seals.
That said, home canning is extremely rewarding. Seeing your pantry full of food, much of it grown in your own garden or harvested with your own two hands, is a feeling that isn’t easily matched.
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the Ball canning book found at walmart is an excellent book for canning. i follow mine to the letter. we can beef and alot of chicken. the bent can store sells 40lb of chicken, boneless and skinless, for 40.00. this will make 21 quarts with a little left over for chicken strips. when ground beef goes on sale we’ll get 30-40lbs and can it. the times coming when going to the store will be a thing of the past, prep now or be sorry. keep up the informative articles they are much appreciated.
Some meats are better processed by jerking or dehydration then by canning.
That’s why we should have multiple ways to have meat products.
My self I have:
salt cure
sugar cure
dry cure
Store Can meat
Home canned meat
Lard covered meat
It can go on and on.
stay sharp
Ball is still the best book I have found for regular canning. This article does not mention a weighted pressure canner. The pressure is kept in with weights instead of gauges and they do not need to be calibrated every year. I have used the same one for 25 years (you do have to change out canner rings).
P.S.
I forgot to mention that if you put some vinegar in the water of both methods you will not have the hard water stains on your jars.
How about no bath or pressure.
There was an old Italian women and she had tomatoes and wash and clean and put in pot to boil them and when ready for canning, she got here jars a started filling them, then she put them up side down, lid down and put them side by side on a table, then when all full she put a blanket over them and covers them with one more blanket and then leaves them there to cool down. Around two days.
I personally have followed her way and yes it worked and still have some from 22 and early 23.
I also used can tomatoes for canning, .# 10 can…
Yes, did not water bath them.
I wold NOT recommend you do this, unless you know what you are doing.
I’ve been canning a very long time.
I will say, if you do not know how to can food, Get some help first. You can kill your self and others.
Not a game…
Off topic:
Please get you and the one’s you love ready for America to get her ASS kicked.
NO one is telling you to get your shit together and get ready. We are not ready for the full scale war that is coming to your Door Step.
You are being ⚠️ WARNED ⚠️ not by your Goverment, but by someone that can read and understand the SIGNS that we were WARNED ABOUT in the Bible. Me and many many others that are like minded have been saying what you have been scoffing about, back at us.
No more Bull shit. Better get ready…
stay sharp
Yeah what other methods can we use to preserve foods like vegetables and meat? There is a lot of water bath or pressure cooking methods done. Which method is better or does it matter what food we are processing? The choices so far are canning – water bath or pressure cooking, dehydration, smoking or a combination.
Which method does the food last the longest?
We see ads and commercials of companies saying their survival food lasts up to 25-30 years.
Can those 25 year foods be made in a home kitchen with basic cooking tools we have? Are the 25 year foods only processed with equipment we can’t afford?
There are more ways to keep food long term. But there is only so much a person can keep fresh or good until the time it’s needed.
Go on line and just ask the Web.
Go on utube.
Just use your brain when learning from other.
stay sharp
Drying/dehydrating/jerking is probably the easiest. An electric dehydrator/dryer bought at the store is easy to use and efficient. You can also set up racks on top of a woodstove to dry foods. Cars get awful hot in the summertime, one could dry foods in there with a window opened slightly to vent moisture.
Meant to add, you’ll need salt, lots of it. Survival Blogs “list of lists” recommend storing white, 50 lb salt blocks (for livestock). Compressed and easy to store in sealed plastic bins or barrels. An ice pick and hammer with a heavy cloth bag to pulverize it will be needed also.
No! 25 yr shelf life is only attained by Freeze-drying! A machine for your home is around $3000. Please do not think that ANY smoked or dried meat will last that long.
Pretty sure neither will home canned food. Please be safe y’all
The foods that last 25-30 years are foods that have been freeze dried. Yes you can buy a Harvest Right freeze dryer and do it yourself.
If you buy the dehydrated food look at the labels it is 99% carbs and beans and pasta with a lot of spices and chemicals that’s why i don’t buy any, it’s basically junk food. There’s almost no meat, but is what you really need and can survive off.
The west was won with meat.
Carbs and fat cause diabetes over time 10–15 years.
Eliminate carbs for a while & type 2 diabetes goes away. To maintain A1C levels in normal range, limit carbs to 50 maximum after getting rid of the type 2, then 50g carbs daily maximum maintenance.
Good refresher for those who do the canning method.
Off topic:
It is pathetic the amount of taxpayers money thrown into the public schools. Run by the unions and many people cannot spell correctly or write a proper sentence.
Have seen these blog comments since the COVID scare, people have been lazy in writing. People have gotten sloppy with texting on smartphones using abbreviations than complete words spelled correctly. Makes seem to be a little dumb in thoughts written out for the readers to see or read.
At least start using spell check before posting a comment.
It is true public schools no longer care if students can do the basic education principals. Reading, writing and arithmetic to function in America.
No wonder many voted for a pedo like Joe Biden a corrupt president. As a senator was it; he was plagiarizing, just like the 50 some plagiarizing done by the Harvard president GAY, recently stepping down. No apology, but doubled down as a victim baloney. While other students got expelled, GAY gets to keep her salary and still be employed.
Are we also tired of the political skin color game liberals hide behind to protect themselves?
Thank you!
Agree the worst part of reading these comments is how atrocious misspelled words and punctuation can change the meaning of the thought conveyed to the preppers in the comment section of this prepper website.
Yes use spell check at least.
Yes I do make spelling errors too. Just pointing out we all need to brush up on our writing skills. Most kids in school are not getting proper education that older adults got about 30 years ago.
I am not perfect either in writing, English language has many similar words that sound the same. Common mistakes are using THERE for THEIR or visa versa in meaning.
We can all be more careful in our spelling.
Thank you.
YES, while the country is going to hell let’s all stop and check spelling and grammar….
It is and going to get worse , as you water down the system with people who have no intellect , no education , no training , no foundation this is what you get
confusion , kaos , total apathy
just wait
this is why , what is happening in the world
confusion for control apathy for take over slothfulness for process
Well, here we go again, you have to be in perfect grammer.
I’ve been on this site for a bit and 99% of post I clearly understood the post and the meaning of there post.
You know some people did not get to learn all the correct ways Grammer is used.
Some did not get to go to school also. There are many different ages on this site.
If you want perfect Grammer then you post perfect Grammer in your post. But don’t ask us all to go along with this perfect way you fill we should post here,
You get what you get and NO more. Deal with it.
Post as you wish. I will do the same.
Crybabies. ..
stay sharp
least of your worries
lack of education , failure to communicate properly , watered down so no one rises above the failures
set up to fail for control , kaos, and take down
sinking ship
Best to stay the course
Do what yu can to change where your circle of influence is , home , city , town , state
your enviornment
only 2 forces at work here Good , Evil , God , Satan , all that is good is from God
so when rapture of the saints , who believe, trust, follow God and his word , this will be left behind
Total Koas , Total failure , Total collapse so the evil one can take over and control the world as is written in the holy bible , true bible , written word Revelation s 6: to 18
judgement of evil and those who choose evil
always a free choice
Nothing better or easier than raw packed boneless skinless chicken thighs there’s so much you can do with them for meals and still inexpensive.
I recently bought our first pressure canner and have read all the instructions. We’re waiting till after we recover from the Holidays to get started. I’m considering having the pressure gauge tested before we use it the first time. Our local extension office is only five minutes from our house.
(off-topic): I promise not to participate in the unnecessary squabbling with the exception of this first reply. As my parents used to say, “Fight nice kids or we’ll bring out the boxing gloves!” Have a happy and healthy New Year to each and everyone on this site!
In many countries it is almost impossible to get a pressure canner. What did our ancestors do before the pressure canner came along. These people still can/canned meat. It is feasible to waterbath meat. Difference is the amount of time. Waterbath meat for 3 hours.
I know many canners say “the Ball bluebook says you can’t”, but yes you can. Just ask people in other countries. You can find canning groups from everywhere through social media.
Well, mistake NUMBER ONE shows someone on the cover page sticking their bare hand down into a jar of pickles. That is really a NO-NO! How many germs did they just can?
Also, clean ALL of your equipment both BEFORE and AFTER you use the equipment! You can get by with a double use of your water bath canner by sterilizing your jars and then using the same water to do the canning, although you might want to switch water if you’re making more than one batch. IMPORTANT: IF you have any lime in your water it will make the lids foggy. To eliminate use about one cup of White Vinegar in the water BEFORE you put your jars in the canner so they get the added protection also.
One of the best sources I’ve seen, and especially for beginners in canning, is the Ball Blue Book, I think now called the Ball Preserving Book. It gives all kinds of details about the differences between Pressure Canning and Water Bath Canning, along with a bunch of helpful hints. It is also chock full of Recipes that are great for the beginner.
After doing a couple of seasons of those recipes you can start finding recipes on-line and even making some modifications yourself. For instance I saw Plums and Peaches on an end cap in the store one day and the light bulb lit up. I bought a good batch of each and brought those home and the wondered if there was such a recipe on the Net – and I found one. Those two items made a fantastic JAM!!
I bought a bunch of Jar Box containers on sale at a Big Box store at the end of the canning season at a really reasonable rate at the time, $7.00 each. These are made in two sizes, quart and pints. I live alone so it is all pint jars for me. I can stack these three high if needed, but my shelving will only allow two high. I was using a dolly to move containers from the house to storage and the top container slid off when I bumped into the cement step. The container fell on the bottom corner, cracked a piece out, but the pint jar in that section remained unbroken.
IF you notice the printing on the Ball Lid and/or Ring boxes state a storage time of 18 months. They’ve reduced the thickness of the rubber on the lid, put the notice on there, and now sell more lids because of that. I turn my inventory of jars over every year, however, with a 6 year lag time. I haven’t sampled all of what I dispose of but this past year I did try the corn. It smelled great when I emptied the first jar so I tried some of the corn from the second and it just wasn’t too bad. I must note also that I do leave the rings on my jars. After they have completely cooled they get labels and a good twist of the Ring to tighten those up before storage.
I’m and old dude beyond 80 years now and I HATED canning season when I was a kid because there were 7 kids at home and we did a TON of canning. Jars lined three walls, 3 shelves high before we were through. NOW, I moved back to Indiana after being gone fo 35 years and that was just before the Y2K fiasco. I purchased several boxes of MRE meals. Later I just thought, “Why not try canning since we did so much when I was a kid.?” Well, I bought the starter package of Ball utensils and the Blue Book and I actually enjoy canning now. Of course the methods and recipes had changed drastically since the 50’s but not so radically that I couldn’t handle it. I like to do a couple of odd items, usually in jams, each year, but the two old standbys are the Sweet Corn and Stewed Tomatoes recipes.Back in the day stewed tomatoes were just that, only tomatoes in the jar. Now, mine are tomatoes dressed up with the addition of Celery, Chopped Bell Peppers, and chopped Onions.
As listed above : Cleanly ness
not mentioned much in previous articles but most important
sanitatation : following proper edicates clean hands, washing hands, with soap and water , sterilization , with Hot water , boiled water , killing of germs, and other bacteries before you use the containers
This is why you will see massive desease, infections, and plagues as spoken in the bible
Gods inspired word for mankind , road map to the conscience to keep you safe from wrong doing . read , pray , follow , learn , teach
Another quick comment – off topic, of course, and ONLY a suggestion.
IF you use a word processor, type your comments in a new document.
NEXT, when finished typing, Spell Check, it doesn’t hurt too much!
Then do a Ctrl + A to highlight all of your text.
Then do a Ctrl + C to copy the text.
Then go to your Comment area – on whatever platform or blog you’re using, click inside the area and then do a Ctrl + V to Paste your comment. Pat yourself on the back – you succeeded.
IF a red underline is shown in a word you posted, Right Click and usually a spell check can be made.
That is exactly what other preppers have been trying to get the message across to the poor spellers. These posters get super pissed off, but that is the truth. Probably they were never told they need to spell check before posting.
It takes all kinds, many times the message needs several repeats before they get the message.
A bit simplistic but that’s OK; needed info for Newbies, and a refresher for a lot of us. I’m boning up on hot re-canning of #10 cans purchased during the pandemic. I’ll get 6-7 jars for each large can. Hot jars, product, and lids won’t need the waterbath. Also, will be Mennonite waterbathing. That is water to the product line NOT 2″ above the lid. Quite a number of UTube sources reuse commercial jars and the one piece LIDS if they have a pop on the lid. My habit of saving all those sauce jars will now pay off. I will be raw canning meat when my quarter steer is delivered. I expect to raw pack and dehydrate to deal with what doesn’t fit in my freezer.
On dehydrating. Love it, not as labor intensive. I’m looking forward to dehydrating meat. The UT Woman (Rain Country) cooks, freezes in 1/2″ cubes, then dehydrates. She says almost the consistency of a freeze dryer. LOL, BTW, been eating down my canned meat stocks from 2017-2018. Clearing out my stockpile. I’m still here, never been sick.. Don’t do chicken, but have a lot of homegrown rabbit.
I don’t have room for a freeze drier, and they take more electricity than canning. The company is GIVING UTs the machine for free advertising. Sorry, that isn’t sitting well with me. I’d rather figure how to build a root cellar than have a freeze dryer.
The cost of freeze dryers has come down significantly since I got my first one shortly after they came out, plus they are larger and more efficient now. I wanted a newer, larger one and traded my old one for services my neighbor could provide that saved me enough to cover most of the cost of my new machine. It was a win for both of us. I have also seen them on sites where people sell things they no longer want or use. They take a little time to get comfortable using and some people just don’t have much patience these days or want to do the work to prepare and store the food. For those who really want to use one but either can’t afford one or don’t have space, they can try to find family or friends to go in together with. I have family out of state, as well as a few neighbors, who have gone together to buy one, then coordinate with each other. There are weeks when I’ll run mine all week long, batch after batch. Other times it may sit for several weeks. It’s a good time to learn to cooperate and help each other.
Another advantage is you can store food you can’t any other way, such as ice cream and raw eggs. Freeze dried fruits such as bananas and berries are also not only great snacks, but great to top off oatmeal to make it tastier and more nutritious. Freeze-dried shredded cheese is a unique snack, fun salad crouton or works great in pasta dishes to soak up the excess moisture from the sauce and intensify the flavor. When I think of all the food I have gotten on great deals by buying in bulk or because it was close to or just after the best sell date, I can see how the machine pays for itself in just a few years. Plus, the food tastes so much better than a lot of soggy canned food. Just remember to not only store a lot of water, but get a good water filtration system. Something that we should do anyway….
Just an old trick. When opening a jar, place a decoy lid on top of the jars lid and use a bottle opener to open the jar. That will preserve the bottom lid for future use. Can’t buy lids when SHTF.
I have a question. I just started canning the last couple of years. I have done both pressure and bath and no one died yet and no popped jars. But reading this article and comments I see something about a pressure gauge. My pressure canner is older, like maybe from the 60s or 70s and IT DOESN’T HAVE A GAUGE I don’t think. There’s a jiggler in the middle. It has 5, 10, 15 lbs of pressure. I can’t remember how that works as I didn’t can last summer and my memory fails me on gauges. Is that jiggler considered the gauge and do I need to have that checked?
That “jiggler” is a weighted gauge with 2 rings. No rings = 5 psi. One (1) ring =10psi. Two(2) rings= 15 psi. The “jiggler” NEVER needs to be calibrated. The jiggler is “the gauge”. If canning instructions calls for using 11 psi, use all the rings (15 psi). The elevation above sea level of your home is also critically important. If you don’t know the elevation find out or just use all the jiggler rings by default. I have this type of canner and I much prefer this type of canner since an uncalibrated gauge can give false pressure reading. Better too much pressure than not enough. “Over processed” foods are safe. Under-processed foods are dangerous to say the least.
The one thing this article doesn’t mention is rust of rings and especially lids while the processed food is in storage. I do not leave rings on completed canned food. I use rancid vegetable oil or regular vegetable oil on both the lids and rings (I store the rings in a Ziplock bag) after I clean the jars with a piece of paper towel soaked in vinegar; and after I mark the type of food on the lid with a black sharpie. I use less vinegar than putting a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in the canner. Vinegar has gotten real pricey lately.
“Not all foods can be processed with home canning. Dairy products and eggs, including creamy soups are not safe to can.”
So… How do we get creamed soups or canned milk at the grocery?
Butter can be canned, so can milk and whipping cream. Yes, some dairy products can be canned if you are careful, sanitary and KNOW how. I have been doing it for years. Salted butter tends to get a bit saltier and keeping it from separating while cooling is a PITA but the benefit is shelf stable butter. Unsalted butter is better to can IMHO. Whipping cream and milk require a pressure canner.
My advice is get with the people that have been doing this for decades. There are a lot of groups and information out there if you seek it out.
Yup. I bought cans of New Zealand butter years ago and it’s still good and delicious.
The Amish are canning experts as are a lot of Utah Mormons.
Great subject and article. I also appreciate the comments.
Has anyone tried the electric/battery vacuum sealer for Mason jars for dry goods? Really would make it a rodent/bug deterrent.
Excellant article , and comments
remember what ever way you choose , research the required items you must have on hand
true prepparation means , well planned , well prepared
No electricity , no running water , no utilities
like you are in the field , remote in jungle, desert, cold areas , artic , or hot , moist ,humid areas
Plan for the area you live
prepare for the area your in
always consider the enviornment city or rural jungle or desert by the sea or on the mountaintops
The USDA Complete Guide to Canning is an excellent resource and it would have been good to include the link: USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning
I was able to download each section into pdf booklets and then send them to my Kindler reader so I have an entire canning library I can pull up from my iPad, laptop or phone or even print it out if necessary.